Thomas Joseph Fay was a Greaser on the Titanic.
Background[]
Thomas Joseph Fay came into being on the 28th of September 1881 in Liverpool, also the native town of his father Andrew Fay, a blue collar worker. At some point, he had been contracted as a carrier or front-door man for a depository.
He picked up an Irishwoman and brought her to the aisle in his hometown’s church, on 8 September 1878, before bringing her into his house where they continued to live. Mary Higgins was her name. A new family line was formed with the birth of William Andrew, who sprung into life in 1879. William co-habitated with Thomas since 1881 but also a sister since 1883. She was Margaret Ann, also the sister of Andrew, who preceeded James in 1887 with James’ year of origin being 1888. The pair bequeated another girl with life in 1890: Ann.
On October 9, 1881, Thomas had was auspersed at the Saint Vincent de Paul Church. A transposition was made between 1881 and 1891, with them going to another street in Liverpool. Their sixth and final child was another girl and they named her Mary in 1892.
It is ostentive that Thomas was roaming on the breakers by 1901 as he was no longer officially on his elders’ adress.
Thomas said the yes-word to Frances Amelia West in the later months of the year 1909. Their special day was arrganed in Southampton, Frances’ place oforigin. Another special day that year was October 27, when Andrew George, their boy, came into view.
In 1911, they were Sontonians as they had their roost in the Saint Mary district. Thomas was away from home, obviously employed by a shipping company to float over the blue expanses.
Another son was given to them in 1912, on January 15. His name was Daniel William.
Titanic[]
In the Spring of 1912, Thomas had recently done a voyage with the Orotava as one of her crew, before he was connected to the Titanic on April 6, in Southampton. He put down his signature for the grit of Greaser.
As a Greaser, he belonged to the Engineering Crew and would wander down to the Engine Room, Turbine Room and stokeholds of this mighty vessel. He needed to put oil into the openings of the widgets of the engines to keep them running without friction. That was his main task, but a Engineer, higher in ranking would also delegate some other errands to him and his colleuages. It could have paid him really well, should the ship have survived.
The towering Recipocrating Engines were put into motion and came into life on the 10th of April, the big day for Titanic. She only had a small scare when another White Star Liner came to say hello. An hour delay had her reach France in the evening. The next halt was Ireland. From then onwards, it would be nothing but ocean, or so they thought.
April 14 looked like any normal night that Titanic’s had, but Titanic’s Captain, the soon to be pensioned and experienced seadog Edward John Smith, knew they had to go slightly more to south to avoid the ice a little bit. To ensure that ice could be seen, they had 6 lookouts which had 4 watch shifts each, in pairs. The pair of Fred Fleet and Reginald Lee were up in the crow’s nest, on duty since 8:00 P.M.
Their perspective was hindered by rather rare climatelogical anomolies. This caused them to miss the sight of an iceberg completely, as they should normally have 11 miles of sight, but the iceberg had been made indescernible, until that moment that Titanic would be a justle away from barging into this. With understandable haste, lookout Fred Fleet made use of the telephone in the crow’s nest after striking the beel three times, to see if the officers on the bridge could see what they were about to hit.
When the call was made, First Officer Murdoch had indeed noticed the jeopardy and asked Quartermaster Robert Hichens to get her to face the port side while he regulated the speed of Titanic with the telegraph. Titanic scudded the iceberg with her starboard bow when she was finally pointing in the right direction. They just didn’t have the time to get her stopped. The short distance since the sighting proved fatal and the ice acted like a razor, tearing small cuts in her hull below sea level. The damage only stopped a few feet aft of the bridge, perhaps close to the first funnel.
It was a light blow, not everyone noticed it. The Captain did however. What the Firemen in Boiler Room 6 noticed was even worse. A wall of water deluged on top of them. Water also made its way into the cargo holds.
Ten minutes later, a nervous captain had been informed and had already sent two men down to inspect. A Mail Clerk brought him bad news. The Mail Room was flooding was so fast. The shipbuilder, Thomas Andrews, was also enlightened and after he had made a a walk-around near the stricken parts of the ship down below, he had a grim prognosis around midnight, April 15. His pinnacle of ship-building design, would be brought down in just a few hours. The water would enter 16 times as fast as they could discharge it via the pumps. Smith then launched a directive to gather his men, gather as many passengers as they could and at least try to get half of them off the ship.
This went terribly wrong, as many boats weren’t stuffed to their limit. The crew wasn’t trained and there hadn’t been a drill, which was planned. They didn’t manage to launch every boat on time, or get passengers motivated to get in. Male passengers were held off at one side, while Third Class below wasn’t allowed beyond the gates.
Time ran out swiftly when it was well past 2:00 A.M. There was a torrent of water climbing over the edges of the Boat Deck when they hadn’t gotten the last two lifeboats off the ship, so the sea did it for them. Very quickly, it doused more parts of the Boat Deck and people were tackled. The angle of the decks were steep as Titanic proceeded downward.
Within 10 minutes, Titanic’s pitch would get ever more dramatic. Like a see-saw, her head part would rest below the surface with the other end sticking up in the air.
Titanic was then fractured shortly after she had no more lighting. The stern became disjoined and followed the forward part into the depts 2 minutes later. The Titanic rode her way down into history, but not the sort that her builders and owners had envisioned.
For Fay, this was the end of the line. So many people were succumbing to gelid waters, as much as 1500 or more. How exactly Fay died, is something that could’ve maybe been answered, had their beena body, but he, like most victims, was now the possesion of the cold expanses. Some had a premature unofficial sea grave like the many Engineers, Electrians and some Firemen, Greasers and Trimmers, as they made no effort to get off the ship, to instead keep control over the lighting, electricity and extend Titanic’s life as much as was in their power, with the pumps. Their actions led to the safety of others.
After his death[]
Frances, Andrew and Daniel Fay were found to be eligiable for alms, by the largesse of the Titanic Relief Fund.
Frances declared her eternal love for another man by ceremony, also a Thomas, Mr. Thomas Rock. He and his fresh bride brought a son into existance. Frances honored her former husband by naming him Thomas Joseph.
Mr. Rock was later also ripped out of her life. He was conjectured to have been in the Army, stationed in Belgium during War Time.
After the war, Frances left widowhood behind once more with the official union to Harry Pinder in 1920. With him, she begot her first daughter, Eileen in 1921 and then bequated 4 other girls with life, of which two were born on the same day in 1926: Kitty and Nellie. These twins were sisters of Frances, who preceeded them in 1923. The last to be brought forth was Stella, in 1928.
The sons of Mr. Fay were also bound to their loves and lived a long life, both into the 1980s, having created their own families and off-spring.
Frances Pinder populated Southampton for all her remaining life and here, she faded away in non-existance the at the age of 81, in 1965.